Skin Cancer Specialists Deliver Smart Solutions for Patients

07/25/2016

Pictured: SLUCare dermatologist and Mohs surgeon Dr. Ramona Behshad

When it comes to your health, the conventional route isn't always the best one. That's
what David Spencer discovered when he had to have three sizable skin cancers on his
nose removed via Mohs surgery. The outpatient procedure offers a 99 percent cure rate for nonmelanoma cancers,
according to the American College of Mohs Surgery, but the resultant wounds, especially
when the cancer covers a larger area, can involve unsightly repairs. That's something
Spencer, who had plans to go on a cruise a few months later, couldn't have.

So his SLUCare Physician Group doctors thought outside the box. The solution: two
newer, less traditional repair techniques, explains Dr. Ian Maher, a Mohs and dermatologic
surgeon. The result was a home run. "I thought I'd have scars, but I just have a faint
line, and if you didn't know I had surgery, you wouldn't even notice it," Spencer
says. The procedure was so noteworthy, it is being published later this year in Dermatologic
Surgery.

We're always driving ourselves to expand our skill set so we can deliver increasingly
better results”

Creative problem-solving is typical of the SLUCare Mohs team, Maher says. "We're always
driving ourselves to expand our skill set so we can deliver increasingly better results,"
he notes, adding that his team offers skin cancer patients a one-stop solution. "We
provide a high level of outpatient reconstruction, which means even patients with
very complex skin cancers and wounds are able to avoid the added expense and inconvenience
of seeing multiple providers." He adds that additional specialists who may be required
for very complex cases are available through SLUCare.

Recently new to SLUCare is Dr. Ramona Behshad, assistant professor of dermatology at Saint Louis University. Behshad says the collaborative
nature of her SLUCare team results in seamless patient care. "If a patient needs complex
reconstruction, such as when the cancer is close to the facial glands and requires
an ENT specialist, I don't have to figure out another physician to transition their
care to," she says. "Here, we all have access to the same medical records and we're
all constantly checking in with each other, so it's easy."

Behshad says she loves the patient-centric approach at SLUCare. "I can feel it in
the way patients are taken care of, from the admins who help them schedule appointments
to the nurses who constantly check in and make sure they're OK," she notes. Sister
Patricia Talone, a patient who had Mohs surgery on her nose, agrees. Although she
jokes that at her age, she doesn't much care about appearance, she was concerned that
an unsightly scar would detract from the professional talks she gives regularly. But
Maher calmed her fears, making the experience as stress-free as possible. "He clearly
explained everything to me ahead of time, and during the procedure he did everything
he could to keep my anxiety level down," says Talone, who was able to return to work
in a matter of days. "Overall, the experience was excellent. Friends say they can't
even tell I had surgery."